reefer container

The real question isn't the term, it's what the box has to do

People land on this page hunting a word, but the decision underneath it is simpler: does whatever you're storing need to sit at a set temperature, or does it just need to stay dry and out of the weather. Those are two different pieces of equipment, and only one of them is something we sell.

A reefer holds an exact temperature because a refrigeration unit is running on it around the clock. A standard container holds nothing but the outside air, minus the wind and the rain. If the answer is refrigeration, keep reading to know what to shop for; if the answer is dry and secure, a standard box off our lot is already the right tool.

What actually makes a container a reefer

Strip away the marketing and a reefer is a steel shell with foam insulation lining the walls, floor and ceiling, and a compressor and evaporator unit bolted to one end where a normal container has a solid door face or a plain wall. That unit is the whole point. Unplug it or let the fuel run dry and the box is just an insulated metal room drifting toward outside temperature.

• Insulated steel shell, thicker walls than a standard box
• Refrigeration unit built into one end
• Runs on diesel genset or a plugged in shore connection
• Common in produce, seafood and pharmaceutical shipping

Why this isn't something we stock

Reefers are specialty equipment even inside the container industry, purpose built machines rather than the plain steel boxes we deal in. Keeping one on a yard means keeping it running, which is a different business than selling and renting the standard 20-ft and 40-ft containers we carry. If the job in front of you needs active refrigeration, a reefer isn't something we can source, and the honest answer is to say so rather than talk around it.

When a standard box does the job instead

Most of what people store, tools, feed, inventory, furniture, equipment, never needed refrigeration in the first place, it just needed to be locked up and out of the weather. If that's the actual job, a standard 20-ft or 40-ft container, wind and watertight, sitting on gravel or a pad, solves it without ever touching a power line.